United Kingdom:
David Cameron set to offer in-out EU vote

5 December 2012 – PresseuropThe Times

UK Prime Minister “David Cameron is ready to give voters the chance of rejecting Britain’s membership of the European Union in a landmark referendum,” reports The Times. The Tory leader had aimed to hold a referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU asking whether the nation wanted to maintain the country’s existing ties to Europe or make them looser, without offering an option to leave the bloc. Quoting “well placed sources”, the daily adds –

Mr Cameron is coming round to the view that a referendum must include an “out” option if it is to have credibility.

The paper continues –

Mr Cameron has been persuaded that the promise of such an “in-in” vote would be torn apart by Tory eurosceptics and UKIP as a phoney referendum that denied voters a real choice.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London who many tip as a future Tory party leader, branded the euro as a "calamitous" project, calling for Britain's relationship with the EU to be pared back to the single market and put to a referendum. In his speech, quoted by The Guardian, Johnson said –

There's a perfectly viable relationship to be had which is happy, contented with the single market, trading freely but not with the whole shebang.

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